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@travellingbee: agreed.

Though I guess i don't know where i stand on teh term RBF. I think some general awareness that "hey, this is how my face looks, back-off" is good. People should realize the "resting" face DOESN'T have to be a smile and THAT'S OKAY!

But i do agree that the term bitch is meant to have a female-specific negative connotation. As if a women who isn't smiling is a bitch and not fulfilling societies standards for what a woman should look like. It's too negative of a term i think.

If it were "resting serious face" that isn't directly negative, it's just descriptive (i dont' think serious is negative). It's just describing that some people don't always smile all the time and that's a normal condition without being a negative condition

This article feels an awful lot like people looking for things to be bitchy about, lol. Guys get called douchey. Women don't. *shrug* I totally have a resting bitch face. I don't care. I usually respond "I'm thinking".

I think women also care more about what others say to them and what they think about them than men do, so topics like this tend to blow up a bit.

I didn't read the article, but I don't find the term offensive, mostly because the only people I've actually heard use the phrase are saying it about themselves in a sort of empowering, like in a "yes this is my face, I'm owning it so back off and mind your own business" kind of way

@blackbird: all of that.

Also I've never had some random person tell me to smile. Maybe because when I make eye contact with people, even strangers, I generally smile. Because it doesn't cost anything to be pleasant. (not because my uterus commands me to be pleasant I just think it's a nice way to be..?). But even if people do randomly tell women to smile more than men.... man I can just think of so many more important things to be pissed off about. lol

@.twist.: "Personally, I think it's because men are like "I don't give a fuck" and women are all like "OMG, YOU JUST CALLED ME A WHAAAAT?""

I completely agree with this (and most everything you've said on this thread). I find that women like to create drama and turn things into an issue, where no issue really exists. I don't take any issue with the B word and find that most times when I hear people referring to RBF, they are saying it about themselves jokingly.

@Mae: "Maybe because when I make eye contact with people, even strangers, I generally smile. Because it doesn't cost anything to be pleasant. (not because my uterus commands me to be pleasant I just think it's a nice way to be..?)."

This is completely me as well! Maybe it's because I grew up in the Midwest and now live in the South where I've found that people are typically generally more pleasant towards strangers they see on the street and in the shops around them.

@Mrs.KMM: lol jinx on the midwestern thing. I don't know I also just sometimes like talking to strangers..? Maybe that is weird but if I'm out running around it is sort of boring and snippets of interaction keep things interesting. I find that a lot of times if I smile at some random person they open a door for me or make some other nice comment and we chat a minute and it's just nice. It makes me feel like I live in more of a community and like most people are good/nice people.

@Mae: meh I talk to strangers a lot. On the subway, while I am picking up at daycare etc. I just don't like men telling me to smile, and it really is just men doing it. Women don't tell you to smile, if they want to say hi, they say hi. There is a pretty big difference between striking up conversation and instructing someone to smile, but on this issue like so many others, your mileage may vary.

@Mae: I tend to agree with all of what you are saying.

Also, I think there are two separate issues here. Random men telling a girl to smile is pretty horrible. But RBF is more than just a girl who isn't smiling. Some people put off a total B aura about themselves. I work with a lady who has major RBF and acts as if she is miserable and disgusted all day long to be at the office. really, even a smile won't help her. But if she were to smile, i wouldn't appreciate it for my own viewing pleasure, but maybe just for the office morale. That being said, she at the front of the office, not wholed away in her own office. RFB away in your own office. I could personally care less if someone smiles!